Tuesday, June 15, 2010

We picked up a bag of garlic scapes from Global Garlic at the Kingfield Farmers Market with a vague idea to do either a relish or mustard with them. Matt thought mustard was the way to go so, I did I little research only to find out making mustard is really very easy.The main ingredients are just mustard seeds & vinegar. You do need quite a bit of mustard seed but you can buy both yellow & brown in bulk from Penzeys quite reasonably, a pound is less than $5. Brown mustard seeds will give you a hotter mustard. From there you can change the flavoring by adding herbs, different vinegars & such.

The process is so simple! Just soak the seeds in your liquid of choice, purée them with vinegar & then cook it down for a few minutes. Voila, mustard. I really expected it to be much more complicated. This batch is zesty from the brown mustard seeds, dry mustard & garlic scapes. It reminds me of a spicy brown mustard but it's not too hot.

Put the water & garlic scapes in a medium non-reactive saucepan. Season with a generous amount of pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat & simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat & add the mustard seeds. Cover & let sit for 2 hours, or until the seeds have absorbed most of the liquid.

Put the mixture in the saucepan into a blender & add the vinegar. Blend until most of the seeds are chopped but you still have a grainy texture. Your mustard should be yellow & thickened. (if you taste the mustard at this point it will be pretty hot & vinegary but will mellow once cooked down.) Pour back into the saucepan. Whisk in the dry mustard, sugar & salt. Bring to a boil while stirring. Reduce heat & simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. If you feel like its a too thick add a little more water.

At this point you can put the mustard in a storage container & keep it in the fridge to use right away. Or you can can the mustard to use when you need it over the next year.

Canning the Mustard

Put five 4-ounce canning jars (without the lids or neckbands) into a large pot with enough water to cover them by 1-inch. Cover & bring to a boil. Let boil for 15 minutes. Add the lids to the boiling water & boil for 5 more minutes.

Carefully remove the hot jars to a towel covered counter. (Keep the pot of water boiling.) Spoon the hot mustard into the hot jars leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Tap them on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Add more mustard if needed. Use a wet towel or paper towel to wipe any mustard off the rims of the jars. Put the hot lids on the jars. Screw on the neckbands until they are as tight as you can get them with your fingers. Put the jars back into the pot of boiling water. Make sure you still have about 1-inch of water over the top of the jars. Cover & let boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat & let sit for 5 more minutes. Carefully remove the jars from the water & let sit undisturbed until completely cooled. The top of the jars should pull in with a pop sound. If a jar does not do this either use it right away or reprocess it.

Makes 2 1/2 cups.

We already have three other flavors planned; Champagne & Thyme, Beer & some sort of fruit mustard. Yes, we do eat a lot of mustard & like a variety on hand. What flavor combinations would you make?

I've made ketchup before and mustard & mayo are the next two condiments to try! You noted that flavoring can be changed by adding herbs, etc. but are the dry mustard, sugar and kosher salt (as given here) part of the basic/core recipe and should remain unaltered?

Tangled Noodle - In this recipe you could leave out the garlic scapes & use other flavorings but I would keep the sugar & vinegar ratio the same. I'll post a recipe later this week for the champagne & thyme mustard which is easier to play with.

Great idea! It really does sound easy. We are huge mustard fans. I think it comes from our love of German food. I use it all the time and it has to be the brown kind like this, not the traditional American yellow. :) I would have to go with spicy, I love it with some horseradish. I can't wait to see how the beer and the fruit flavors turn out!